Monthly archives for October, 2016

So the game plan for this race was to go under 9hrs. I did the race in 2015 and broke well into 9hrs and came out thinking that if I could shave a few minutes off swim and also bike then run near 3 hours I stood a good chance. This year my running form has been great all season and I believed with all my resolve I that I was ready and more than capable to unleash the beast and go near 3 hours on the run.

A few days before checked the weather it was looking like a near repeat of 2015, or so it appeared at first glance online.

The bike course change meant an extra couple hundred metres climbing up a long drag out and back around 7km each way. Taking this into account I figured the bike course would be only slightly slower.

Did a few training runs in Calella prior to the race and realised it was a few degrees hotter ~25 which I probably could handle however the humidity was much higher than previous year. I did a 5k easy run 2 days before the race and was completely soaked 2k into the run and this was at 6pm in the evening. So with the change in course and conditions on board it was clearly looking like it would be a tougher day than last year, but not by extreme variables by any means.

Decided to race the skinsuit to get some extra time on the bike. The suit is rapid but meant that I needed to swim with it up under my wetsuit.

Due to the epic size of my guns the suit was very restrictive on the swim stroke, it was also pretty choppy leading to a pretty sluggish swim split of 1:04. This was however 3 minutes faster than last year. Gave it a proper sprint up the beach into T2 and was out on the bike the clock so far on 1:08.

I paid avid attention to the first 3km leading out of Calella. Learning from last year where I got slowed down by riders in the small lane ladened with traffic humps on the way out. This year I sprinted that section, I reckon shaved 2mins off the bike split here. There was a strong tailwind on the way out so just ended up blasting it from the word go. I’d say I started a bit too hard on the first lap, but hey you cant hang around if you’re going for under 9!

Id not ridden the newly added hill before but was glad I didnt waste my time doing a recce as it really wasnt much of a challenge. It was a slow drag mostly ~1 or 2% probably maxing out at ~5%. The time lost climbing was easily re-embursed on the downhill return. The road up is pretty smooth but has loads of bad sharp humps right next to the aid station where I almost came off after hitting a hump refilling with one hand on the basebar. Watch out there!

The 40k section of the ride back into Calella was tough. There was a fat block headwind to deal with and it wasnt fun or fast. It started to hot up at around 80k as well and when I passed half way with a whopping 2:18 split I was stoked but knew id gone too hard on the first lap, I was starting to cramp a bit and feeling the pain. After passing back out through town it was back to tailwind and I quickly in order to save my race made an effective and immediate call to take it steady.

I took some time to eat a chocolate ride bar – a choice that I would regret as I burped it up for the next 60km and really upset my stomach which up until that point was nice and settled. Between 130k and 160k was most testing.

The effect from the push on the first lap began to melt in and started eroding my positive mental state. Things started to get difficult but I managed to convince myself if I could just hold steady it would pass… and the gods answered as around 160km I switched from telling myself, just hang on you’ll be ok (eventually) to – I cant wait to go decimate the run.

It was also then that I heard the voices of 2 other SA boys and had a good general chat about how great we are, the familiar tone of the South African accents of was a welcoming and comforting change in the status quo battle of purely me vs the bike course. The South African contingency all went into T2 together, ready to leave it all out there on the run.

~4:45 on the bike split…yesss please another few minutes shaved off from last year. All still according to plan. Time to unleash the 3hr mara cmon – I can do this.

Boom first km split at 4:06. I was moving, legs felt great. Second km split 4:10. Going strong. The first 5k was all under 3hr marathon pace. 1/8th down I broke it down, another 7/8ths just like that and will be well under 9hrs. Even in the 27 degree sunny heat and incredibly humid conditions I was eating up the run course feeling great. I grabbed water bottles at aid stations and hung onto them splashing over head and chest to keep my core cool making sure to only drink 1 sip per aid station to avoid any possibility of stomach cramps.

By 6k I started to feel a couple side stitches but handled it pretty well bit of banging on the ribs sorted it.

Then boom 6ks of up and down run jiggling the old gut made the first move. Thankfully about 500m down there was a couple porto loos. Me and one pro guy who was having a real bad day both blasted into them at the same time. After faffing to get the skin suit off I got down to business trying to minimize the dead time. These races are absolutely beautiful until they get savage.

By the time I eventually left the murder scene the humidity and sweat had completely soaked my run shoes.

As I began running I could feel the inner sole losing grip on the bottom of the shoe, the next few km it kept slipping forward slowly parting completely loose from the base. I made the call then that even if the shoe fell apart and I had to run barefoot I was going to die before I stopped to fidget with it and waste more time. I also knew that if I could make it back to transition relatively in tact that I had a spare set of run shoes in my street wear bag, Id just simply convince a marshal to fetch them for me and bobs ur uncle id have a fresh pair and a return back to decent comfy running and most likely be able to negative split the run…note how the nonsensical glimmering opportunity of merely wishing to regain any kind of comfort at that point kept me on track and steady – There’s a plan! I thought – in 10k – i’ll get those fresh shoes… I had so much to look forward to. All of the sudden I was running 4:20/km pace and tearing up the run again.

With all the pissing about and time wasting over for the meanwhile I made good time and tucked in until I arrived back in transition and flagged down a lone marshal. It quickly became evident he did not get why I was pointing at my shoes so he went to get the team leader who spoke great English and told me I was not getting my spare shoes.

From then I just got on with running with no inner soles. Half way split at just under 1:39, Id have to neg split like an animal to make it under 9. Possible so I started churning it up. Kms 21-30 I felt great. I caught up with Markus who had a phenominal bike split and still going strong.

At around km 31 my gut made another move. Thank god there was a loo 100m away. I dived in same story as before. Lost another 5 minutes faffing with skin suit, this time decided to start running before putting back it on. Thankfully a photographer was there to capture this moment.

Indecent Exposure

After that there were no more surprises from anything else. Just pure hurt. After having rinsed myself of all purity twice by that stage I felt very dehydrated and slowed down to 4:50 pace. Everything wanted to shut down. I wanted to curl up and go to sleep.

The last 5k was all coke and bananas. With 500m to go I cramped up the entire left side of my body. Even the side of my face went numb. Managed to somehow carry on and put my sun glasses back on to mask the incredible pain I was in from the joy of finishers shoot. I ran 3:27 shaved a few minutes off last year:

Definitely not under 9 hours but a new pb on every discipline at Barcelona and more importantly a huge pb in my mental strength and resolve. I’d given it everything and PB’d under harsher conditions than the previous year. Under the circumstances this was my best performance in a race ever, but in my evaluation on paper I’m still treating it as a failure (a good failure) and purely because I didn’t hit my goal targets of a 58 minute swim, 4:40 bike and a 3:05 hr run.

My moving run time was 3:15 so I lost around 13 minutes with stomach problems, this would have seen me ~9:15. Additionally I think if my shoes hadn’t been reduced to pulp and I had kept my stomach I defo would have been slightly faster too around ~9:10 5th in age group and possibly top 50 overall would’ve been achievable on the day in the conditions. With that performance I am starting to understand what it takes, and without the stops it would have been close to going under but I am still not quite there. For now it’s time to go back North tae think again. To plan again.

To my wife, kids, family and friends thanks for all your support. To Markus it was an honour to catch up on the run and after the race, and big thanks to coach Graeme Stewart. Onwards.